Chelsea 3 West Ham 2
It's off too the lucky-ish pub of the Floirin with Matt and Lisa for this 5.30pm kick-off. Chelsea have rested several key players after Europe and West Ham start confidently after three wins in a row as Taty gets a couple of shots away.
Wan-Bissaka is getting lots of space on the right and after seven minutes he finds Jarrod Bowen. Pablo goes for the captain's cross, doesn't connect, and confuses Sanchez so much that the ball drifts in. We almost choke on our Guinnesses and reflect that it's a long time to hold a lead.
But the Irons are playing some incisive stuff. Another good move sees Castellanos fire into keeper from close range. Incredibly it's two on 36 minutes as Wan-Bissaka pulls back and Jimmy Summerville thumps home a lovely first-time finish from the edge of the box. Thats four in four for the winger. Two-nil up at half-time and Chelsea booed off — what could possibly go wrong?
Well, substitutes for one thing. Chelsea have already brought on Neto and at the break bring on Joao Pedro, Cucurella and Fofana. Even so West Ham nearly make it three as Fernandes fires a long-range effort at the keeper and then Castellanos pokes narrowly wide.
What we don't want to do is give Chelsea a lifeline as Fofana races from the centre circle unchallenged to cross. Joao Pedro has got behind Mavropanos to head home. West Ham are pressed back and Areola has to make a fine save from Caicedo's piledriver.
Chelsea look much sharper this half. The Irons are still ahead on 67 minutes as Nuno makes the baffling decision of taking off Pablo for Max Kilman and going to five at the back. That's inviting Chelsea to pile on more pressure. It would have been far more sensible to strengthen the midfield with Potts or Magassa or to bring on Traore for his pace. Nuno just doesn't seem to realise that this team can't defend.
Three minutes after Kilman comes on Neto crosses from the left, Gusto heads towards goal, Kilman tries to clear but heads against his own bar and Cucurella reacts quickest to head home the rebound.
It's pretty constant Chelsea pressure at 2-2 but the Irons have a chance to win it as Summerville does well to win a free-kick. Soucek crosses low and Todibo strikes the outside of the post from close range when he should score.
Nuno's late subs are strange too, taking off our best player Bowen for Traore and replacing Diouf with Scarles, who struggles against Neto. But somehow it's still 2-2 on 92 minutes. Then Palmer finds Joao Pedro who is allowed to cross to Fernandez, who slipping between three defenders, strokes home and does an annoying shirt-twirling celebration.
West Ham lose it after that. After winning a corner Traore is goaded by Cucurella and Joao Pedro and reacts very aggressively. A melee ensues and Todibo grabs Joao Pedro round the neck. VAR results in an inevitable red card. That's incredibly stupid and means our best defender misses the next three games. Areola is up but the corner is cleared and West Ham collapse to defeat.
That's 92 minutes of hope followed by nine minutes of absolute despair, which rather sums up our season. We think of the 3-2 defeat at Wigan after being 2-0 up. WHU can think up ever more inventive ways of losing. It's all starting to look very Avram Grant-ish as Matt bemoans the failures of Loppy, Potter and "Nuno Dispirito Santo". Short of being named in the Epstein files it can't get much worse. While the Floirin has definitely lost its lucky-ish tag.
Chelsea have played well and bought on four quality subs, but this was our chance to keep the run going. Lisa tries to cheer up Matt by taking him to see the Canary Wharf light show, though all the bulbs may well fuse after 92 minutes.
Teams that can't hold on to two-goal leads tend to get relegated as do teams that can't defend and suffer needless red cards. The Hammers played really well for one half but unless we can sign a defender we look doomed.
